Music
20 Mar 01

Frequently Asked Questions

In a world infatuated by the loud, the obvious and the immediate, it would have been easy for this tender collection - intimate, lo-fi and humble as it is - to have been lost in the ether of the too-ethereal. But then, seminal London Irish independent Setanta have a long and distinguished history of listening closely.

You'd be forgiven, as the slow, drowsing shuffle of album opener 'Are You Satisfied' swells forth, for thinking that the next voice you hear will be, thrillingly, Hope Sandoval's. Similarly, the gentle pinpricks of guitar and infinitesimally slow tempos elsewhere on FAQ might suggest imminent opening salvos from Kurt Wagner, Nick Drake or Jeff Buckley. Instead, we are led through this gallery of intimacies by Paul Anderson's sweet, whispered tremolo, a vehicle so small and fragile that each syllable arrives individually, lest it crack under their weight.

FAQ is that happy thing: an album that reveals more with each repeated listen, and gentle highlights abound. The tiptoe advances - gorgeous and tender - of the stunning 'This Sacred Day' brim with the ineffable catch-in-your-throat poignancy of Lambchop's 'My Blue Wave'. Plangent Nick Drake guitars give way to cataclysmic violins and a dull, Tindersticky roar on 'Folk'. And the cat's-cradle lullaby of 'Underneath The Ceiling' recalls the Warm Inventions while conjuring a delicate magic all its own.

Less, occasionally, is so much more.